Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I: De Principiis

S. Th. I-II, q. 40, a. 1 and 2; q. 25, a. 1; Q. D. de Virt. 4, a. 1.

794. Hope according to the name (ἐλπίς) in the proper sense signifies a certain passion of the sensitive appetite of the irascible; whence the word was also used to designate both an act of the will similar to the passion of hope, and the habit inclining to this act (I Cor. XIII, 13).

In a derived and improper sense it is also taken a) for the thing hoped for (Tit. II, 13; Rom. VIII, 24-25); — b) for the one from whom we hope (Ps. XIII, 6; XXI, 10), in which sense we invoke the B. V., saying: our hope, hail; — c) for the means of acquiring the thing hoped for (merits, prayers of the saints, sacraments); — d) for the certitude of hope which is its perfection (Rom. V, 4-5).

795. Hope, taken in the proper sense, is rightly defined: a movement of the appetitive power, tending toward a future good, arduous, possible of attainment. It is called

1) a movement of the appetitive power, i.e. either of the sensitive appetite, or of the rational appetite or will, as was said in the preceding n.;

2) tending toward a good, and so it differs from fear which is of an evil; furthermore this good is sensible if it is a question of the passion of hope, but it is spiritual or even divine when it is a question of hope pertaining to the will;

3) future: for no one hopes for what he already has; and so hope is distinguished from joy or delight which are about a good already had;

4) arduous, i.e. difficult of attainment: for no one hopes for what is immediately and easily in his power; and so hope is distinguished from desire, which is for any good whatsoever, without considering its difficulty or possibility;

5) possible of attainment, at least according to one's estimation, and therefore probably to be obtained; and so it is distinguished from despair.

To hope, therefore, is to desire vividly some good for oneself, and to be confident of obtaining it.

796. Hope necessarily presupposes the love of concupiscence and desire; indeed it virtually includes them: for although one can love, and even desire, what one does not hope for, no one however can hope for what he does not covet and desire. That love is a simple complacence in the good, i.e. a coaptation of the appetite to something good, by which the appetite becomes conformed and proportioned to what is loved, and this is connatural and fitting to it; desire is a movement, a tendency toward obtaining that good; but beyond these, hope adds a firmer effort toward the attainment of the good, notwithstanding its difficulty. For when difficulties appear which entice a man not to pursue the good, and at the same time the possibility of obtaining the good appears, hope causes a man not to abandon the pursuit of the good, but to persevere firmly in it, indeed to tend more toward the good on account of the difficulties. Hope therefore strengthens the appetite, makes it firm, fights against the difficulties that arise, and raises us above the difficulties.

When someone hopes for the attainment of a good from the help of another, the act of hope is properly called expectation.

797. Divine or theological hope is defined: a virtue divinely infused by which, with certain confidence, we expect eternal beatitude and the means thereto, to be obtained by divine help. There is indicated

1) the genus to which hope belongs: a virtue divinely infused or supernatural;

2) the proper act of hope, by which it is distinguished from other virtues: by which we expect;

3) the material object or matter with which it is concerned, both principal: eternal beatitude; and secondary: the means of obtaining it; 4) the formal object or motive of hope: by divine help;

5) the essential property of hope: with certain confidence.

798. Division of the treatise. — The treatise on hope comprises 4 parts:

1st treats of the object of hope and of the act of hope which is known through the object: 1. of the formal object, 2. of the material object, 3. of the necessity of hope;

2nd treats of the habit of hope, which is known through the act, and of the subject in which it inheres: 1. of hope as it is a virtue, 2. of the subject of hope and of those having hope; 3. of the gift of the fear of God;

3rd treats of the sins opposed: 1. of despair, 2. of presumption;

4th treats of the precept of hope¹.